Integrate environmental stewardship into your business practices to fuel economic growth

Resilience redefined by technology to bring harmony and prosperity to people and the planet: this is the promise of “digital sustainability for economic resilience”, an emerging business strategy highlighted in the NTT DATA Technology Foresight 2025 report. Published annually, the report explores new technological trends researched by NTT DATA.

This approach spans environmental, social and personal dimensions; the principle of ownership; and the fostering of individual and collective responsibility. By adopting digital sustainability practices in your organization, you can improve your business resilience, meet consumer demands for ethical operations and maintain a balance between economic and social (including ecological) efforts.

Technological advances to watch

The latest developments in AI, IoT and blockchain support digital sustainability by making energy management more efficient and enabling real-time environmental monitoring and greater supply chain transparency. This empowers you to amplify your organization’s sustainability initiatives while remaining competitive and addressing growing consumer demand for eco-conscious practices.

According to the report, business and IT leaders should monitor the following:

• Trusted data spaces enable secure and interoperable data exchange between organizations, using advanced encryption and governance frameworks to promote transparency, improve collaboration and optimize resource usage while following data-sovereignty regulations. This boosts operational efficiency, fosters innovation and supports sustainability goals across industries.
• Smart grids integrate digital technologies such as sensors, IoT devices and AI algorithms to distribute and manage electric power more optimally. Through real-time data collection and dynamic demand response, these grids improve energy use, minimize transmission losses, balance load more effectively and ease the integration of renewable energy sources.
• Sustainable data centers use advanced cooling technologies, energy-efficient hardware and renewable energy, virtualization and dynamic resource allocation to reduce their environmental impact and carbon footprint.
• Remote sensing technologies use high-resolution satellite and aerial imaging systems, along with advanced data-processing algorithms, to monitor environmental and resource conditions. By analyzing multispectral and hyperspectral data, these platforms provide precise information on climate patterns, vegetation health, water resources and land usage. This leads to more informed forecasting and decision-making — essential for resource management and building sustainability and economic resilience.

5 strategies for success

The report identifies five core strategies for managing your organization’s digital sustainability efforts:

1. Digitally optimize energy and resource use

When you integrate your sustainability targets with stakeholder engagement and adopt responsible consumption practices, you can improve your energy and resource management. Prioritizing regulatory compliance, economic impact and social responsibility lays the foundation for a sustainable future.

2. Build human and territorial resilience

Human and territorial resilience refers to the ability of individuals and communities to adapt, recover and thrive in the face of environmental, social and economic challenges. This concept focuses on building the strength and adaptability of populations and their infrastructures in the face of disasters.

3. Strengthen economic resilience

Economic resilience refers to the ability of organizations and communities to withstand and recover from economic shocks while maintaining sustainable operational practices. Adopting resilient practices not only attracts environmentally conscious consumers but also strengthens your organization’s overall economic resilience by improving stability, trust, competitiveness and adaptability.

4. Advance sustainability at a social and individual level

It is vital to foster well-being, community engagement and equitable access to resources when you’re building a resilient society. Understanding the interconnectedness of tools and platforms enables informed decision-making and responsible technology use that empowers individuals and communities.

5. Drive toward systemic, integrated sustainability

Organizations should recognize the interconnectedness of social, environmental and economic systems to develop cohesive solutions. Often called “comprehensive sustainability”, this perspective highlights the need to address multiple dimensions simultaneously to achieve lasting impact and resilience in communities and ecosystems.

Navigating the risks and blind spots

Like nearly every other technological breakthrough, the pursuit of digital sustainability for economic resilience comes with some uncertainty:

Commitment to decarbonization

Could rapid decarbonization become a global priority? Breakthrough technologies and urgent policy shifts are likely to help the world reduce emissions as economies transform through green energy and circular practices, significantly reversing environmental degradation. This scenario also sees thriving green industries, improved public health from reduced pollution and faster global innovation.

However, slow progress in decarbonization may force communities to prioritize disaster response as the impact of the climate crisis intensifies. In this scenario, advanced prediction tools, decentralized energy systems and local collaboration will improve resilience. If global mitigation lags, adaptive measures will foster innovation and strengthen community bonds, offering a route to long-term sustainability.

Global collaboration

If governments, industries and civil society align globally to tackle the climate crisis, binding agreements, shared resources and collaborative technologies may lead to coordinated climate action. The positive outcomes would include equitable resource distribution, widespread technological innovation and global resilience against climate risks.

If international relations fray, however, countries may pursue individual agendas. Progress would vary between nations, but localized solutions would emerge as some nations become innovation hubs. These nations would pioneer effective policies and technologies, providing valuable models for others despite the lack of global alignment. Competition among nations would also be likely to also spark advancements in renewable energy and climate adaptation strategies.

What comes next?

Sustainability isn’t just about reducing environmental harm. It requires a holistic approach that integrates environmental, economic and social dimensions. All organizations must address these interconnected challenges to create a lasting impact. Actions in one area of sustainability often ripple into others, creating interdependencies that need to be managed effectively. Systems mapping and analysis tools help to optimize these interconnected domains.

Advanced technologies offer immense potential to realize sustainability goals but must be balanced with ethical considerations to ensure social inclusiveness and address privacy concerns. Equity, accessibility and privacy must be central to digital innovations.

Closing thoughts

To address the challenges involved in embracing digital sustainability initiatives, using GenAI-powered personas or avatars to analyze scenarios for the future of your organization has proved to be a powerful approach.

These personas — which are created with technologies like multimodal GenAI, natural language processing and emotion AI — will facilitate more immersive and interactive ways of simulating business environments, helping you mitigate risk through scenario-based planning.

While some uncertainty will remain, exploring these scenarios will reduce the risk of blind spots down the road.

What’s next

Read the NTT DATA Technology Foresight 2025 report, infographic and trend to uncover more strategies for navigating the next wave of technological change.